Yesterday, Disney closed the Mulholland Madness ride at Disney California Adventure. Mulholland Madness was one of the original rides created when the park opened in 2001 and, like the Maliboomer, represents to many the initial failed concept for the park.

Rather than dismantling the ride, Disney has decided to transform it into “Goofy’s Sky School”. It is expected that Goofy’s Sky School will open in May 2012.

For those who have not experienced Mulholland Madness, it is a forgettable, poorly themed ride in Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Pier. It is one of the “off-the-shelf” rides that Disney built in order to reduce costs, and is emblematic of why California Adventure has struggled so much in its first decade. The fact that Disney is re-theming it represents the positive new thinking at Disney as they correct the original misguided concept.

The ride itself was a carnival-like roller coaster ride which attempts to capture some of the craziness of Southern California roadways.

So what is going to change in the ride?

Apparently the ride itself will stay mostly the same with the main change being the theme. This is similar to what Disney did when it changed the Orange Stinger ride into Silly Symphony Swings recently.

I live in Colorado and have four sons in college and high school. By day I am a mechanical engineer. I have visited the Disney resorts in Paris and Tokyo. I grew up near Disneyland and started going there before I can remember.